


dial up

by i_am_therefore_i_fight



Series: beautiful villains [3]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-08
Updated: 2016-08-08
Packaged: 2018-08-07 11:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7713673
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_therefore_i_fight/pseuds/i_am_therefore_i_fight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>If he looked into the Mirror of Erised, he would see himself as a small child again, held tight to his mother’s warm breast, shielded from the world by the curtain of her hair.</p>
            </blockquote>





	dial up

* * *

 

 

\- The thing is, he’s always been kind of scared.

\- Snakes give him nightmares. Like, actual nightmares. Blood makes him queasy (he’s got a weak stomach). His father’s eyes turn his soul to ice.

\- If he looked into the Mirror of Erised, he would see himself as a small child again, held tight to his mother’s warm breast, shielded from the world by the curtain of her hair.

\- The thing is, there’s a reason that small creatures in the wild puff themselves up to look big and threatening. Before they ever get the chance to experience real life, they learn what they must do to survive.

\- The thing is, he’s never really had a very steady wand hand.

\- Hatred is really just fear with the dial turned all the way up, past eleven, past the point where your nervous system knows what to do with it, and it all comes vomiting out of you in a wave of spite and bile.

\- He is always reaching for some imaginary sense of security. Money will keep you safe. Your father will keep you safe. If you do what you’re told, if you do what you have to, if you’re willing to do anything, anything to survive, you’ll be safe. When this is all over, you’ll be safe. You’ll be safe. You’ll be -

\- The thing is, he’d rather be completely alone than with people he can’t trust, people he has to be constantly inventing ways to get the better of. He’d rather be alone in the world, the only person left alive on the whole planet -

\- (No he wouldn’t. He’s terrified of being alone. He’s terrified of the way his voice would echo if he were the last person on Earth)

\- The thing is, he was sick a lot as a child. Or maybe he just convinced himself he was sick, so that he could bury himself in the covers, so that his mother would come and lay her hand on his forehead and tell him that everything would be alright and he was   s a f e

\- The thing is, in a world where only the strong survive, he’s not going to make it.

\- The thing is, the dial keeps turning up and up

and his puffing and shrilling isn’t working

and there are no blankets and no mother’s hand

 

\- the thing is that the whole world is a dark forest now and he has been lost for a long time

\- the wolves are howling

\- the thing is

\- the thing is -

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted at i-am-therefore-i-fight.tumblr.com/post/148604270588.


End file.
